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Misconception
The beating of a young pregnant woman leads to a miscarriage. Plot After being mugged, pregnant legal secretary Amy Newhouse has a miscarriage. Logan and Cerreta suspect that the mugging was not random, and that someone -- perhaps Amy, perhaps her boyfriend, cab driver Chris Baylor, or perhaps her boss, attorney David Alcott -- wanted the unborn baby dead. The problem: Can the D.A.'s office argue that the killing of an unborn baby qualifies as a murder? Cast Main cast * Paul Sorvino as Sergeant Phil Cerreta * Chris Noth as Detective Mike Logan * Dann Florek as Captain Donald Cragen * Michael Moriarty as Executive A.D.A. Benjamin Stone * Richard Brooks as A.D.A. Paul Robinette * Steven Hill as D.A. Adam Schiff Recurring cast * Robert Katims as Civil Torts Attorney Jacob Bloom * Rick Zieff as Dr. Cohen Guest cast * Molly Price as Amy Newhouse * Reed Diamond as Christopher Baylor * Stanley Anderson as Defense Attorney Jerry Manley * Gordana Rashovich as Defense Attorney Bayliss * Nicolas Surovy as David Alcott * William Jay Marshall as Judge Hollis Burton * Rosemary De Angelis as Dr. Mishon * Shirley Stoler as Charlie Maylen * Yancy Butler as Beverly Kern * Pat Hodges as Elaine Cowan * Zina Jasper as Judge June Appel * Len Gochman as Judge Gillion * Jane Hoffman as Mrs. Fisher * Neal Jones as Ray * Ronnie Farer as Mrs. Marty Alcott * Robert Levine as Dr. Bernard Gluck * John Di Benedetto as O'Malley * Kristine Nielsen as Marcia Caine * Joe Perce as Schuman * James Georgiades as Dosso * Rod McLachlan as Paramedic * Sally Chamberlin as Forewoman * Raye Dowell as Secretary * Jay Spadaro as Bailiff References References Quotes "You want a jury to ignore the evidence." "No, Chris and Amy want the jury to look at the law. I’ll get the jury to look at Chris and Amy." "The law’s supposed to be a shield, not a sword. They’re despicable, yes. But by letter of the law they’re not guilty." "The legislature could never have conceived of anything like this, but wrong should not win by technicalities. You know that yourself." "Get these bastards off the street. ''" : - '''Adam Schiff' and Benjamin Stone "Hey, summer of ’82, I hacked part-time to pay tuition. Sometimes in the middle of the night, I’d get lonely, I’d park my cab in front of Janey Meyer’s house, leave the meter running, go inside, take care of business, pay the fare myself." "Which would amount to what, about $2, $3?" "Like going to Jersey and back!" : - Mike Logan and Phil Cerreta "I wouldn’t mess with me if I were you, Chris. By the time you see a dime, it won’t be worth a nickel." : - Elaine Cowan "Is this jealousy I'm hearing?" "It's nausea. Ambulance chasing always brings that out in me." "The public is all over us when a known killer walks on a techicality. I just flipped the coin. I let the jury use a technicality to convict." : - Ben Stone Background information and notes * The episode is based on the Maria Flores case. In March 1991, at San Diego, California, Flores had just cashed a $378 welfare check in when Robert Davis approached her and demanded her money. Flores, who was pregnant at the time, refused to give up her cash, and Davis fired a bullet into her chest. Flores survived the shooting but her fetus, less than six months old, died from a combination of blood loss to the placenta and asphyxiation caused by Flores' own blood loss, low blood pressure, and shock. During Davis' trial, fetal experts testified that the fetus was 22 to 25 weeks old. They disagreed over whether it could have survived outside the womb, but none put the chance of survival greater than 50%. Superior Court Judge Michael Wellington, over the objections of the defense, told the jury that a "fetus is viable when it has achieved the capability for independent existence; that is, when it is possible for it to survive the trauma of birth although with artificial medical aid." The standard jury instruction defined a viable fetus as one probably capable of living outside the womb, a definition that would have been more favorable to Davis. The jury convicted Davis of fetal homicide, but indicated that it was not convinced he knew Flores was pregnant. She weighed 192 pounds when she was not pregnant and stood at 5'1". The case would go on to set a precedent in all other murder cases involving fetal homicide. Episode scene cards Category:L&O episodes